


Puppy Eyes

by MissMairin



Series: First Meetings [5]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Dogs, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-05
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-04-07 21:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4277784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissMairin/pseuds/MissMairin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two weeks after moving into World Apartments, Ludwig quickly learns that puppy eyes are, in fact, not meant just for dogs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Puppy Eyes

As he walks the last few feet to his apartment door, Ludwig hears loud barking coming from inside. Though it had only been a few weeks since he moved in, it doesn’t really surprise him. In fact, it felt right. After all, he had picked the World Apartments for its policy on pets: _All Animals Welcome._

 

Standing in front of the door, the excited barks turn into long, emotional howls, and he sighs fondly. Ludwig and his dogs were used to moving around a lot. Most apartment complexes didn’t allow animals; if they did, only small ones, and he definitely could not buy his own house. He had just moved in to this apartment, and his dogs were already yowling, welcoming him to their most recent place.

 

Better yet, he thought to himself, his dogs _are_ his home. Home is where the heart is, and Ludwig’s heart is definitely with his dogs.

 

“I’m back,” he says, opening the door just enough for him to slip inside. The barks are much louder with no doors or walls to act as barriers. He quickly shuts the door behind him and turns to face his dogs; he had missed them, even if he had only been gone for a few hours.  

 

Winston, a Great Dane, jumps on Ludwig’s chest, easily pushing him back against the wall with a flurry of wet kisses. Ludwig just laughs, petting his dog and pushing him off gently.

 

“Did you guys miss me?” He coos affectionately, crouching down to stroke both of his dogs. Pepper whines behind Winston, trying to shove her smaller build past the giant Great Dane. Being a Greyhound, while she was a fairly tall dog, Pepper was meant for speed, and not strength. Ludwig smiles down at her and pushes Winston aside long enough for her to wiggle her through.

 

The two dogs push and shove each other, both trying to get the most affection from their owner. They are true siblings, growing up together in Ludwig’s little family of three.

 

* * *

 

 

“Do you guys wanna go out?” Ludwig teases, putting emphasis on the words _go_ and _out._ Winston and Pepper stare at him, wide-eyed, before dissolving into excited woofs, their tails wagging a hundred miles-per-hour. The two dogs jump up and down, running around, thrilled with the prospect of going outside.

 

“You sure you wanna go? Are you sure you wanna go?” he says again, psyching his dogs up even more. They bark continuously at him, Winston pawing at the door while Pepper runs into the closet, dragging out two leashes. Ludwig takes the leashes from her and announces, “Let’s go for a walk!”

 

* * *

 

 

“Winston, Pepper, it’s dinner time!” Ludwig calls from the kitchen, whistling once or twice for good measure. Right on cue, the two dogs come barreling down the apartment hallway, their nails clicking and clacking loudly as they scramble for purchase on the wood floors. Winston appears at Ludwig’s feet first, skidding to a stop. The dog sits down politely for his food and wags his tail before his female counterpart plows into him, sending them both flying into the wall.

 

Within seconds, Winston and Pepper are back at his feet, barking wildly and nipping playfully at each other. Ludwig holds the two bowls above their heads, and stands up straighter. When the dogs continue to make noise and prance around, he commands, “Sit!”

 

They sit, and he smiles approvingly down at them while he puts the two bowls down. Winston gobbles the food up, a few pieces of dog food rolling away from him while Pepper stretches and lies down, paws guarding her food. She eats with leisure, and growls good naturedly when Winston tries to eat her food as well.

 

* * *

 

 

Ludwig sprawls out on the couch and turns the tv on, moving his feet to give Pepper room to curl up at the other side of the couch. Winston, instead, jumps on the couch and plops his giant body onto Ludwig’s lap.

 

They stay like this for two episodes of his favorite tv show; he has long given up trying to teach Winston that he is, in fact, not a lap dog. Ludwig’s stomach growls, dutifully telling him that he is craving something to eat. He groans, sitting up, as he pushes Winston off his lap. Unfortunately, when his dog refuses to move, it is very difficult to get him off.

 

Thankfully, Ludwig’s saved by a knock on the door, rousing both Winston and Pepper from their positions. They rush to the door, barking loudly to alert their owner that, yes, there actually is someone at the door.

 

He stretches, willing feeling back into his legs after an hour of being squished by a giant dog. Ludwig shuffles to the door, yawning and shoving his dogs away from the door with his left leg. He opens the door carefully, watching to make sure neither Winston nor Pepper get through to attack whoever was on the other side. With years of practice, he skillfully rounds the door, pulling it shut behind him, and finds himself face-to-face with a young man.

 

“Hi, um, sorry. I’m Feliciano Vargas,” the young man introduces himself, smiling brightly at Ludwig. He fiddles with a loose string on his shirt, looking shyly back and forth. “Um, I live below you and I can hear your dogs running around and barking all the time and --”

 

“Oh! I’m so sorry,” Ludwig apologizes, though he had believed that phase was over. Didn’t the apartments allow for his kind of dogs? “I’m sorry -- they must be disturbing you, they are somewhat noisy.”

 

He takes a moment to really look at Feliciano, and vaguely realizes that the man reminds him of a small puppy. Ludwig feels somewhat bad; he must have interrupted something important if he had came all the way upstairs just to complain about the noise.

 

Feliciano blushes and shakes his head, dispelling any bad feelings. Ludwig arches an eyebrow, curious, when Feliciano smiles and says, “No, no, it’s fine. I was just hoping -- um -- maybe, could I pet them?”

 

“What?”

 

“It’s just… I really love animals, especially dogs,” he explains, his expression becoming brighter by the second. “That’s why I moved here! I keep hearing your dogs, so that’s why… so, can I pet them?”

 

Ludwig stares at the other man, a bit confused.

 

Feliciano deflates under his gaze, anxiously picking at something on his jeans. He looks up, his eyes pleading, before quickly looking away again. While neither of them say anything, Winston and Pepper are continuing to bark from their spot on the other side of the door. Feliciano looks past Ludwig wistfully, staring at the door, as if he could see the dogs already.

 

“You want… to pet them?”

 

“Yes! I would love to!” Feliciano answers, smiling once more as he recovers from his low. He glances back up at Ludwig, a final time, his eyes pleading and his lips trembling. The expression is the perfect puppy eyes, something Ludwig had previously believed only dogs could do.

 

In his life, there had been so many times that Winston, Pepper, or any of his previous dogs, had given him _the look_ , begging for some of Ludwig’s dinner. _The look_ , or known by other dog lovers as simply, puppy eyes, is something Ludwig knew by heart. All it took was one look, and he had broken down, sharing some of his human food with his dogs.

 

Here he was, years later, and the young man standing in front of him had perfectly mastered the art of puppy eyes. The slight frown that anyone would kill to turn upside down, the sad eyes, begging for something, the shy glance back and forth: Feliciano had mastered it all.

 

“Um, sure, but be careful, they jump,” Ludwig warned him, before turning around and opening his apartment door. Feliciano’s expression changed, breaking into a bright grin, bouncing up and down in place, before following Ludwig into the apartment.

  
It was the first time of many that Feliciano would use puppy eyes to get what he wanted. Coincidentally, it was also the first time of many that Ludwig would give in and give Feliciano what he wanted.


End file.
